Answered How does everyone work with static template files?

Hi everyone,

Just a quick, and maybe stupid question but i was wondering; how do you guys work with static template files. I've linked some HTML files to chunks and templates but every time i make changes i need to clear the site cache. And for some reason disabling 'Global Cache Settings' in the system settings isn't working either. It is clearly not my browser cache since i use incognito mode for adjusting these templates.

I hope you guys can help me out here Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Nick [ed. note: niintek last edited this post 10 years, 6 months ago.]

When you edit the file externally, MODx has no way of knowing that it's been edited, so you would need to clear the cache to have the changes show. When saving templates and chunks in the Manager, the cache is automatically cleared (unless you uncheck that option).

I think you can just reload the page in the Manager too. One problem is that MODX elements don't have an editedon field, so MODX has no good way to tell which is newer, the file or the stuff in the DB.

Clearing the cache is a necessary evil with static resources/elements. The convenience factor however can outweigh the evil, and I have been known to use a low down and dirty way to quickly clear the cache without the extra step of clearing the popup. I sometimes open a dummy page, or rather a resource, that I can save over and over again quickly. It takes the menu clicking and pop up "ok" clicking out of the picture for clearing the cache, thus eliminating at least 3 clicks.

I'd much rather work in an external editor than in MODX. This hacky and dirty method clears the cache as needed when I'm working with a lot of static resources. And one other piece of the puzzle, the quick edit save button is far less buggy than the save button on an open resource (which isn't always highlighted). Shrug... do what works best for you.

While developing, i use With these settings, every new document is created uncached and template-files aren't cached. Every change to the files is displayed instantly on reload.

On a live site just invert the settings
Batcher comes in handy to enable/disable caching for a lot of documents before going live.

Quote from: DasItsch at Oct 25, 2013, 09:06 AM

While developing, i use

cache_default = 0
cache_disabled = 1
cache_resource = 0

With these settings, every new document is created uncached and template-files aren't cached. Every change to the files is displayed instantly on reload.

It works. Thanks

Hi Everyone,

I tried Dasltsch's option, and this doesn't work for me. However i did tried this option using old resources so i guess thats the difference, so if i'm correct Dasltsch's option only works for new resources? Batcher also didn't work for me, it kept on caching.

For me BobRay's option did the magic! Works like a charm! I just embedded his code into the resource it self, so it clears out cache everytime i load the page it self. I'm not sure this is the best way to do it, but for me it works out just fine.

Frogabog's option also works great, if your looking for an even easier way to clear the cache i would recommend his aswel. (Saves you the 'hassle' of installing BobRay's CacheClear. So in production environment this might be easier, but when developing i can strongly recommend CacheClear embedded into your resource)

However i'm very curious about Dasltsch's option aswel, for some reason it doesn't seem to work for me. Could you maybe confirm that it will only work for new resources?

Thanks everyone for participating in this discussion, the power of the community; i love it.

Cheers,
Nick

It's my understanding that cache_disabled has no effect at all and I can't find any use of it in the MODX code.

Thats my conclusion aswel, it doesn't affect the file cache at all. Thanks for pointing out CacheClear. Works like a charm!